


Important and Adorable

by AithuzahFic (veritably_mad)



Series: Tumblr Ficlets - Ask Memes [5]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-09
Updated: 2015-05-09
Packaged: 2018-03-29 18:58:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3907057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veritably_mad/pseuds/AithuzahFic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin and Gwen find an album of Arthur's baby photos.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Important and Adorable

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Val_Creative](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Val_Creative/gifts).



> **Meme:** "Send me a ship and the first sentence of a fic and I will finish it!"
> 
>  **Prompt from[Rie](http://nooowestayandgetcaught.tumblr.com/):** Merwenthur - "Put it away.”
> 
>  
> 
> [Link to ask.](http://aithuzah.tumblr.com/post/118542226471/merwenthur-put-it-away)

“Put it away.”

“But it’s  _so cute_ ,” Merlin cooed, holding the photo album out of reach until Gwen could stand on a chair and save it. She flipped through the pages, one hand pressing to her smile every so often as she reached a particularly silly photo of the chubby, ridiculous child Arthur had been. Merlin warded off Arthur’s attempts to retrieve the album (and his dignity).

“Oh, Arthur, this is  _precious._ Why haven’t you shown it to us before?” she gasped, forgetting that Arthur was still, despite years of coaxing and love from them,  _painfully_  aware of and sensitive to the way others perceived him. While Gwen and Merlin could share the most embarrassing moments of their lives with nothing more than a blush and some laughter, Arthur tucked his away and pretended they’d never happened. Too afraid he would be judged and rejected as someone less-than-perfect. Unlovable.

(Sometimes, Merlin wanted to throttle Uther Pendragon for the mess of fears and pressures he’d made of his son. Gwen would never say as much, but Merlin could tell from the way her lips pursed and her forehead creased whenever she saw Arthur’s post-lecture-from-Father tension that she felt the same way. Probably with less throttling, but the feeling was there.)

“Because it isn’t important,” Arthur insisted. His face was red, but his jaw was set as though he was trying to maintain his pride despite the blush. “They’re just old pictures. They don’t mean anything.”

He tried to dodge around Merlin, but was stopped by a hand to the chest.

“They’re part of your life, Arthur. Part of who you are. Of course they’re important,” Merlin said, letting the  _You’re important_  hang silent at the end.

“And adorable,” Gwen added. Arthur scowled at them both.

Merlin slid his hand to take Arthur’s in quiet reassurance, a gentle smile on his lips, waiting until Arthur met his eyes and the wary tension eased. 

_It’s okay. You’re okay. We love you._

In a thousand ways over the years, they’d all saved each other. 

Before he’d met them, Merlin had been directionless, bumped from one odd job to another and embittered by the endless weariness of too many bosses with too many complaints and too-long hours and too much isolation. Loneliness he couldn’t escape, a cramped room in an flat shared with a man dead in the eyes and with a cruel twist to his mouth. 

Gwen found him first, and Merlin thinks he may have loved her for that moment of brightness in one rotten day among rotten days alone. He’d opened his mouth to speak up at the wrong moment–again–in defense of a harassed coworker, and ended up barely hanging onto his job and assigned to the most dreaded tasks possible. 

Gwen, though,  _sought him out_ , sought him out to bring him coffee (”You look like you need it–not that you look bad, you just look tired–I mean, it seems like you’re tired…I’m sorry, I’m being rude, aren’t I?” “You’re the least rude person I’ve spoken to in months.”). She fumbled and stuttered her way through calling him  _brave_ , of all things, along with sort-of-almost insulting him several times accidentally. Merlin had been charmed and a little smitten. Above all, he’d been reminded that genuinely good people still exist in the world.

He kept running into Gwen, after that, his world brightening a bit more each time she smiled or ducked her head, dark curls falling around her face and hiding the lovely flush of her embarrassment. When her flatmate, Sefa, moved out to take care of her father in another city, she practically ordered him to escape Valiant and live with her, instead.

Merlin met Arthur in a way that would have made him hate anyone else, but Arthur had a way of getting under your skin. Showing that the iron-grey harshness of his armor protected a fragile golden heart, idealistic and hopeful in spite of it all. 

So even though their first encounter involved Merlin calling Arthur “the most obnoxious customer I’ve ever had the displeasure of serving,” dumping a latte over Arthur’s head, and subsequently losing his job, their next encounter involved Arthur showing up at Gwen and Merlin’s door (which he almost got slammed in his face for his efforts). He apologized for his behavior, stiff-spined and awkward but also genuine and  _sincere,_ and offered Merlin a position at his company. 

Merlin almost refused. He didn’t want handouts, let alone a job offer born of _pity_. But Arthur had managed to get a hold of his resume and had been reluctantly impressed, and he said as much, along with sort-of-definitely insulting him several times on purpose. Merlin had been charmed in spite of himself, and above all, he’d been reminded that people are complicated, absurd, and rarely as simple or black-and-white as they first appear.

He started in a low position, of course, but Arthur kept an eye on him, visited when he could. He’d tease and pretend he was only making sure his newest employee wouldn’t fuck it all up. Or dump coffee on anyone. Merlin found, though, that Arthur was subtly guiding him to not just find a job and keep it, but to find the  _right_ job. One that he could enjoy, or at the very least not actively hate. 

After a time, Merlin was transferred to a department where he found himself thriving, and Arthur insisted that they get drinks to celebrate. (More accurately, he claimed that it was an outrage that he’d never seen Merlin sloshed, and he intended to rectify that immediately because he was  _sure_  it was an embarrassing spectacle well-worth spending more time with Merlin than necessary to see. But Merlin knew how to translate Arthur-speak.) 

Merlin invited Gwen to join them, and that was the first time Merlin noticed how much Gwen had changed since he’d met her. Her uncertainty and backpedaling had lessened. She stood taller, spoke with confidence and surety, even when faced with someone as handsome and imposing as Arthur could appear upon first meeting. When Merlin mentioned it, she thought a moment, startled at the observation, before telling him with absolute certainty that it was thanks to Merlin’s influence. 

“Of course Merlin would be the one to show someone how to speak their mind,” Arthur had commented then as Merlin blinked, speechless. “He never _stops_. I don’t think he knows how to.”

Arthur and Gwen bonded over that, became easy and relaxed for the rest of the night. Merlin could already see the strength of Gwen’s kindness peeling away a few layers of Arthur’s armor so a sliver of golden light shone through, even as Arthur’s less-than-sensitive social missteps sharpened her tongue. 

They were works-in-progress, all three of them. Even now, living together years after all those firsts, they were still healing as they helped each other heal, still growing as they helped each other grow.

“Come on.” Merlin pressed a kiss to Arthur’s mouth and turned to offer a hand to Gwen. When she stepped down from the chair, he kissed her, too, and kept both of their hands in his as he guided them towards the sofa. 

They sat with the album spread over their laps, Arthur in the center, his face still flushed but smiling, now, too. Looking down at the chubby-cheeked blond child in the photos with fond remembrance.

Gwen tapped a fingernail to one of the pictures. “That’s Morgana, isn’t it?”

He nodded, hesitant but relaxing, opening, healing. “She’ll deny it, but I swear she bullied me when we were younger,” he told them, flipping to a picture of her sitting on his back and grinning. Gwen and Merlin melted into his sides as he told them about his childhood with awkward laughs and nostalgic stories. Their hands found each other easily over the back of the sofa behind Arthur’s head and clasped, slid into a comfortable circle across his shoulders. 

Linking them all together.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos, comments, and constructive critiques are always welcome and much appreciated. 
> 
> (I'm greedy for feedback, I admit it.)
> 
> { [come say hi!](http://aithuzah.tumblr.com) }


End file.
